A leadership framework for building organisational resilience through work engagement for a selected South African and Namibian non-governmental organisation.
Aylward, Petronella
Aylward, Petronella
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Abstract
Due to the non-profit nature of welfare organisations in the South African and Namibian context, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in the social welfare sector have been facing persistent common challenges and adversity. As a result, many of these organisations have been forced to dramatically scale down their operations in the face of growing social needs like poverty and the orphaning of children due to HIV and AIDS, while others had to close their doors permanently. Organisational resilience is, therefore, a crucial element in the survival of the nongovernmental organisations in the welfare sector as government needs NGOs to adequately address the socio-economic needs of the country. The 11 different affiliate NGOs of an overseeing non-governmental affiliate body in South Africa: one of whom is from Namibia, are faced with the same persistent, common challenges and adversity as mentioned above. It is the role and task of the leaders of these affiliate organisations to build the resilience of their branches through harnessing the positive energy released by the successful work
engagement of its employees. It is, therefore, the primary objective of this research to establish a leadership framework for building organisational resilience through work engagement. It will also be determined if leadership is a mediator between organisational resilience and work engagement, and if there are significant relationships between leadership and
organisational resilience; also between work engagement and leadership Finally, it will also be determined if significant relationships presented regarding the responses of individuals from diverse demographical groups and the study variables namely leadership, organisational resilience, and work engagement. A quantitative method of data collection was used for the study and a survey design was utilised to obtain the data. The population consisted of the management structures (governing bodies and management staff), as well as non- managerial staff (schooled and professional) of the 11 affiliates of the overseeing body. The 11 affiliates are distributed as nine NGOs, and one tertiary training institution in South
Africa, and one NGO in Namibia. The staff component of these branches consists of more than 7 000 members including semi schooled- and professional personnel. Random stratified cluster sampling on 633 employees in different occupational levels (management-, professional- and support staff) was conducted and 483 questionnaires were completed.
Data was gathered by combining existing questionnaires that were distributed through personal visits by the researcher, as well as with the assistance of some of the directors and their secretaries of the affiliate NGOs. The directors and their secretaries facilitated the distribution of the questionnaires during staff meetings and arranged for the collection of completed questionnaires in sealed boxes. The following standardised questionnaires were used: Leadership, Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) by Bass and Avolio (1997).
Organisational resilience, questionnaire by Kantur and Iseri-Say (2015); and Work engagement, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) by Schaufeli and Bakker (2003:48).
Two research boxes (one for the questionnaire and one for the informed consent form) were used to ensure confidentiality. The Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient and Dillan-Goldstein’s rho coefficient for composite reliability were used to measure the internal reliability of the instruments that were based on the inter-item correlations. The data collected was recorded and
coded using the R programme. Statistical analysis was conducted after applying descriptive (tables, percentages, mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (structural equation modelling). The Chi-square analysis was applied to determine if significant relationships were present regarding the responses of participants from diverse demographical groups and the study variables. The key outcome of the study is a leadership framework for building organisational resilience through work engagement in the NGO under study. The study contributes to the existing body of knowledge regarding human resource management, specifically with regards to leadership, organisational resilience, and work engagement.
Description
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree, Doctor Techologiae: Organisational Leadership in the
Department of People Management and Development, Faculty of Management Sciences at the Tshwane University of Technology
Date
2021-10-01
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Tshwane University of Technology
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Keywords
Inspirational motivation, Work engagement, Transformational leadership style, Intellectual stimulation, Idealised influence, Contingent reward leadership, Laissez-faire leadership style, Organisational resilience, Management by exception leadership, Transactional leadership style